A complete list of the A&M Records 25th Anniversary Classics Series

I'm a newer member of this forum. I've searched the internet (including Wikipedia), as well as this forum, for a simple, yet complete list of the A&M Records 25th Anniversary Classics Series. I see a lot of info on this forum about the CDs contained in this series, including Harry's 50th anniversary reviews of these CDs, as well as Mr. Bill's wish list for a continuation of this series (complete with cd covers). Yet, I couldn't find a simple, complete list of the actual CDs in the series. If it exists - either here or elsewhere - my apologies. Otherwise, I compiled this list and submit it here - just so that people like myself can find this info quickly and easily in one place:

A&M Records 25th Anniversary Classics Series:
Volume 1: Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass
Volume 2: Carpenters
Volume 3: Quincy Jones
Volume 4: Joe Cocker
Volume 5: Rita Coolidge
Volume 6: Chuck Mangione
Volume 7: Gino Vannelli
Volume 8: Joan Baez
Volume 9: Supertramp
Volume 10: Atlantic Starr
Volume 11: The Brothers Johnson
Volume 12: Peter Frampton
Volume 13: Nils Lofgren
Volume 14: Humble Pie
Volume 15: Styx
Volume 16: Nazareth
Volume 17: Procol Harum
Volume 18: Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66-'86
Volume 19: Lani Hall
Volume 20: Herb Alpert
Volume 21: Joan Armatrading
Volume 22: Wes Montgomery
Volume 23: Burt Bacharach
Volume 24: Cat Stevens
Volume 25: Squeeze
Volume 26: Pablo Cruise
Volume 27: LTD (featuring Jeffrey Osborne)
 
Thank you, Harry! Did you piece this graphic together just for this occasion, or did it already exist in some "easily" findable place? Just curious, 'cause I searched the world over and . . .
 
Excellent job Harry I often thought there could have been more cds in this series to include more of the earlier A&M artists such as BMB Claudine longet Chris Montez The Sandpipers and several others who had more than enough material to fill at least one disc or two that would have filled the void for the lack of cd reissues of their recordings at that time IMO
 
Somewhere in our A&M Corner Archives I generated several more for artists that SHOULD have had the treatment (including those Bobberman mentions)!

Along the same lines I always considered Phil Ochs' Chords of Fame double LP to be the Phil Ochs Foursider.
 
Interesting how they picked an artist photo for every CD except the Pablo Cruise and Supertramp ones. I can understand Supertramp because they never appeared on their album covers but ... did somebody toss all the Pablo promotional photos in the trash bin or what?
 
Interesting how they picked an artist photo for every CD except the Pablo Cruise and Supertramp ones. I can understand Supertramp because they never appeared on their album covers but ... did somebody toss all the Pablo promotional photos in the trash bin or what?
I wouldn't be surprised if they did toss them out I remember hearing about how when Polygram took over A&M they Gutted it and threw a lot of things away. No wonder Herb and Jerry sued them
 
Possible additions... Unsure of their accuracy, however I have album covers, and not track lists or the CD as of yet. I think I will be collecting them. Don't care for all the artists, but if you have a set, you should collect the entire set. (Or at least that's the way I think...)

Volume 28 - Baja Marimba Band.jpeg
Volume 29 - Liza Minnelli.jpeg
Volume 30 - ?
Volume 31 - Chris Montez.jpeg
Volume 32 - The Sandpipers.jpeg
Volume 33 - ?
Volume 34 - Lee Michaels.jpeg
Volume 35 - Boyce & Hart.jpeg
Volume 36 - The Flying Burrito Brothers.jpeg
Volume 37 - ?
Volume 38 - Free.jpeg
 
I generated more than a little energy trying to track Claudine Longet and Chris Montez CD releases. Also Sandpipers. I know Claudine's reputation suffered due to the well known incident in Aspen if I recall correctly, but I have wondered if the neglect of material from all three were A&M decisions or artist decisions. It's a shame they have been underrepresented in the market.
 
I generated more than a little energy trying to track Claudine Longet and Chris Montez CD releases. Also Sandpipers. I know Claudine's reputation suffered due to the well known incident in Aspen if I recall correctly, but I have wondered if the neglect of material from all three were A&M decisions or artist decisions. It's a shame they have been underrepresented in the market.

All of Claudine Longet's A&M albums have been on CD at one time or another, mostly from Japan. And there have been several compilations of her material, including a couple that concentrated on her Barnaby stuff, and one that concentrated on her A&M stuff that was released in Japan. It was called DIGITALLY REMASTERED BEST. There was also a A&M GOLD SERIES release in Japan.

The same series, DIGITALLY REMASTERED BEST had a Sandpipers release in Japan. And all of the Sandpipers A&M albums have had a release at one time or another on CD, again, largely from Japan.

I believe that Chris Montez' albums have all seen CD releases too, again from Japan. And I know he got an A&M GOLD SERIES release in Japan.

These GOLD SERIES and DIGITALLY REMASTERED BEST discs can virtually be looked on as entries in the CLASSICS SERIES as they contain a similar number of tracks and disc lengths. I suppose that the US powers that were at the time saw little need for those older, more obscure artists to get entries in the CLASSICS SERIES.
 
All of Claudine Longet's A&M albums have been on CD at one time or another, mostly from Japan. And there have been several compilations of her material, including a couple that concentrated on her Barnaby stuff, and one that concentrated on her A&M stuff that was released in Japan. It was called DIGITALLY REMASTERED BEST. There was also a A&M GOLD SERIES release in Japan.

The same series, DIGITALLY REMASTERED BEST had a Sandpipers release in Japan. And all of the Sandpipers A&M albums have had a release at one time or another on CD, again, largely from Japan.

I believe that Chris Montez' albums have all seen CD releases too, again from Japan. And I know he got an A&M GOLD SERIES release in Japan.

These GOLD SERIES and DIGITALLY REMASTERED BEST discs can virtually be looked on as entries in the CLASSICS SERIES as they contain a similar number of tracks and disc lengths. I suppose that the US powers that were at the time saw little need for those older, more obscure artists to get entries in the CLASSICS SERIES.
Japan is a lot inconvenient for U.S. people. From what I found when I began looking, prices were sky high. U.S. should have been served.
 
It can be a daunting task to keep up with the Japanese market, and was even moreso back when some of these were released. And they now command high prices in the used market.

It's no fun to realize that something that you want was out years ago and hard to find. It can also be fun to trace down those items. The thrill of the hunt...
 
I was surprised to find a few of these classic artists on Qobuz. (Most can be purchased as downloads without having to subscribe.)

For Chris Montez, there are three A&M albums (The More I See You, Foolin' Around and Watch What Happens), and an anthology titled "Call Me: The A&M Years." Sandpipers, surprisingly, five original A&M albums plus the Digitally Remastered Best. Claudine Longet gets four of her original A&M albums represented.

For the Montez and Longet albums, download cost at Qobuz is $10.49 per album, for the original albums. Montez's anthology is $18.99. For Sandpipers, the original albums are $7.49, with the Digitally Remastered Best being $14.99. Note that these are not the lossy files, but lossless in 16-bit CD quality in any of five lossless formats, so quality is the same as a CD you'd buy (without the hassles and high prices of Japan).
 
These GOLD SERIES and DIGITALLY REMASTERED BEST discs can virtually be looked on as entries in the CLASSICS SERIES as they contain a similar number of tracks and disc lengths. I suppose that the US powers that were at the time saw little need for those older, more obscure artists to get entries in the CLASSICS SERIES.

There was also a Digitally Remastered Best volume for Peter Allen (another artist excluded from the 25th Anniversary series). It contains the only CD version of "Shy As A Violet" which was the non-LP b-side to the "She Loves To Hear The Music" single.
 
And some of the CLASSICS discs were repurposed in an A&M GREATEST HITS (Backlot) series, like Wes Montgomery.
 
Don't spend any time looking for anything beyond 27. They don't exist. I refer you to this old thread where our Mr. Bill fabricated all of the entries beyond 27.

https://forum.amcorner.com/threads/a-ms-25th-annv-classics-series-what-we-wanted-to-see.4696/

That was a fun project. At the time, many of us were lamenting the lack of representation by many "classic" A&M artists... So I decided to mock up some of those who were missing. I was planning on doing more, but (being in the Navy at the time) I was deployed and free time was rare. I think I had them penciled in to Volume 50... Some of the ones I think I didn't get to included Oingo Boingo, Peter Allen, Hoyt Axton and more...

--Mr Bill
 
One of the "A&M Classics" that wasn't released was Joe Jackson "Greatest Hits" which might have been "Classics Vol. 28"!! Matt Clark Sanford, MI
 
I was just looking around on the Web and stumbled onto this CLASSICS VOLUME 9 for Supertramp on Amazon. When I clicked on the image of the rear insert, I saw something odd at the bottom. What in the world is that in place of the standard Compact Disc logo?

CompactDiscLogoClassicsOdd.png

My own copy of that disc looks to be a BMG club version, but it has the correct CD logo.
 
Must by made out of the USA or newer pressing from Polygram or UMe? Anyway, mine has the standard compact disc logo.
 
One thing I wonder is how they made the choices for the number list. I would have thought the Brasil 66-86 would have been issued closer to the top of the list rather than at 18.
 
Probably just based on when the compilations were ready to be released. No significance to the numbers, in other words.
 
Yeah, Herb and the TjB headed the list at #1. No surprise there. Carpenters was a repress of the YESTERDAY ONCE MORE compilation, so, already done - an easy choice for #2.
 
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